Centrifugal separator.



A. M. MARK L B. H. MCELVMN.

cENmFuG/.L SEPARATOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 1B, SIG. l .v LQQQE. Paented Nov. o, 1918.

I' 3 SHEETS--SHEET-L i im c a a A. Ni. MARK @l E. H. MCELVAIN.

CENTRIFUGAL SEPARATOH.

MJPUCMWQN man FEB. 18, 19m..

Pzlcmod Nm'. 5, 191ML 3 SHEETS--SHEE 2.

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arianna ieatriaiaar l en.

ALLEN IVI. MARK ANI) BLAKE H. MGELVAN, 0F DENVER, COLURADO.

j CIENTRFUGAL SEPARATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov., 5, twin..

Application filed February l, 1916. Serial No. 79,023.

To all whom it may concern.' Y

Be 1t known that we, ALLEN M. MARK and BLAKE ll. 'lvoELvAImcitizens of the lUnited States, residing at the city and county of Our invention relates to improvements in,

centrifugal separators and is adapted for the separation of all commingled materials varying in specific gravity. rThe principal use for the machine which we have in mind is the separation of precious and other metals or mineral substances from the gangue or rock with which they are found mingled either in the natural state as placer material, or in the shape of pulverized rock or quartz.

Our object is to provide a machineof this class which shall be adapted to efficiently perform the aforesaid function and which shall at the same time be comparatively sim ple in construction and economical in cost.

The construction comprises in its simplest form a pan mounted to rotate and having walls inclined outwardly as they extend upardly from the bottom. said walls being equipped with a series of riflles which may be either separate and distinct from each other or in spiral form as may be desired. Where the rililes are arranged in parallel relation or forming distinct convolutions, the

vmetallic values in'whatever form, will be caught below the riiiles and held by 'the action of centrifugal force in direct contact with their lower surfaces and the adjacent wall of the pan, while the ganguc or material of less specific'v gravity will travel upwardly over the riiiies and be discharged at the top of the pan whence it may pass directly into a waste launder, or where a plurality of pans is used, the material which passes over the top of the innermost pan, will come in contact with a depending stationary wall whereby'it will, be guided downwardly into y the bottom of the rotary pan,.where it will be again acted on by the centrifugal force and brought into contact with another set of riliies arranged on an inclined wall outwardly positioned from the first named wall.

ln this way the material whichv is discharged at the top of the irstmember of the pan, may be subjected to the action of any desired number of other and similar riffled members arranged successively outwardly from the first member, but all preferably mounted on the same bottom and caused to rotate in unison.

lll/There the ritlles are in spiral form, it is intended that the metallic values which are caught thereby will travel gradually up- -wardly under the influence of centrifugal force, taking a spiral path according to the pitch of the riil'le members, the metal valuesbeing finally discharged through an opening in the pan adjacent the upper extremity of the spirally arranged rifile. In this case the discharge of the values is continuous and automatic while in the case where the riiles are distinct and separate the values which are caught remain in their deposited position until it shall be desired to clean up, in which event they may be removed in any desired manner.

ltlaving briefly outlined our improved con struction we will proceed to describe the same in detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, in which is illus trated an embodiment thereof. In this drawing,d

Figure l is a vertical section takencen'- t1-ally through our improved centrifugal separator, the section being taken on the line 1-1, Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the machine, or a view looking in the 'direction of arrow 2, Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the machine showing the launder composed of two hinged members which are opened or swung out wardly from each other, to expose the exterior'pan of the struct-ure.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of the pan shown on a larger scale. Y

Fig. 5 is a detail view lshowing the wall of thc pan and a riffle on a larger scale.

Fig. G is a fragmentary view illustrating theinanner of hinging the gangue launder. being a view looking in the direction of arrow 6, Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a detail view showing a section of the stationary wall which separates two riftled wall members of the .rotary pan.

lthe `drawing and respectively designated 7 illustrating a similar to Fig. but pan equipped with 'a spirally arranged riiie Fig. 9 is a section taken on the line 9 9,

Fig. 8 is aview Fig. 8, shown on a largerscale.

' The sa'me reference characters indicate the same parts in all the views. y

Referring first more particularly to Figs. 1 to 7 inclusive, let the numeral 5 designate a pan composed lof a bottom 6A having one or -moreinclined walls, two being shown in and 8. The bottom 6 of this pan is secured to a disk 9 by means of suitable.y fastening devices'10, the said disk being formed in- .tionary member 15.- Rotary movement 'is imparted to the shaft 12 in any suitable manner. As shown, a horizontally disposed shaft 16 is journaled in bearings 17 and 1S, said shaft being provided with an operating pulley l19 at its outer extremity and a beveled gear 2 9 at itsinnr extremity, the sald gear meshing with a horizontally disposed cooperating gear 20 made fast 'to the shaft 12 by a set bolt 21. Each of the walls 7 and 8 'of the pan are iiared outwardly as they 'extend upwardly, and while this inclination may be regulated as may be desired or as circumstances or conditions or the material to be'treated may dictate or suggest, the pre; ferred inclination so far as our have gone is 45 degrees approximately. The Wall members 7 and 8 are rigidly secured to the bottom .ofthe -pan and rotate therewith. Each of these wall members is provided with a in cross section and decrease iii diameter from the bottom upwardly though it must be understood that the`invention is not limited to this particular cross sectional area the rifHes nor to their relative size, since, if desired-they. may beA made all of the same cross sectional area or they may vary in size with a different relative arrangement if for any reason it-may be desired so to do. The riil'les may be secured to the wall members of the rpan in any suitable manner. As shown in the drawing (see Fig. 5) solder 23 is employed to perform thisfunction.`

The two Wall members 7 and 8 are spaced by a stationary partition 24 which is secured to the top 25 of the launder 26 by means of angleA brackets 27, bolts 28 and cooperating wing nuts 30. It'is evident able means may be employed for supporting this partition 24 in cooperative stationary relation with the two rotary, rified pan members. The upper extremity 3l of this experiments partition is preferably vertically disposed and extends above the upper edges of both pans. This part 31 forms a sort of baille which prevents the material which escapes under the action of centrifugal force, at the series of spaced riiies 22 which, as shown in the drawing, are circular that any suit- --top of the p'an member 7, from passing into the waste vlaunder 26 until after it has been treated by thepan member 7 and the partition 24; The partition 24 is Ainterrupted at the bottom, to allow the material after passing downwardly through the space 32, to come in contact with the bottom or rotary part of the pan, and as soon as this occurs, the material immediately begins to travel upwardly into contact with the riilles 22 of the pan member S. The material which escapes at the upper edge of the last named pan member, passes into the waste launder 2G and finally escapes through a spout 33. It is evident that any desired number of these pan members may be e1nployed,`and by virtue of this construction the material which has escaped from one pan member, if it still retains values, may be subjected to thetreatment of another pan member and so on until it has been impoverished of all of its metallic content.

As shown in the drawing, the launder 2G is composed of two members hinged as shown at 34 to stationary uprights 35. the

two membersbeing respectively designated by the numerals 36 and 37. lVhen the machine is in ilse, the launder members are connected by means of clips 38 mounted on one extremity of the member 3G, which engage 'catches 39 mounted on the adjacent extremity of the other launder member. This launder member is composed of a top wall` a vertically disposed outer wall 4t) and an` upwardly projecting inner wall 41 which is spaced from the outer wall and varies in height. This launder in addition to being supported by its hinges, is also supported by arms 42 and 43 which are secured to the stationary frame and extend upwardly into engagement with vthe bottom of the launder. lVhen it is desired to open the launder to the. position shown in Fig. 3. it is evident that the clips 3S must not only be disconnected from the catches 39, but the top of the launder mustvbe disconnected from the angle brackets 27 and also from a cent rally located distributing member 44 which is equipped with arms 45 which are secured to the top of the launder by bolts 4o and wing nuts 47.

-This distributing member 44 is suspended from the top of the launder and is approxi- `mately coneshaped, its smaller extremity being uppermost and located directly below the feed or funnel 48.

A feed conduit 49 passes through the inlet 4S. its lower exi rem ity being positioned slightly above the upper extremity of the distributing member. The, base of this distributing member is raised slightly above the bottom of the pansince messie the distributing member is stationary when the machine is in operation, and it is, therefore, not desirable that it should be inactual vcontact with the pan. The distributing member performs an important function, since it is not desirable that the material to be treated should be fed directly into contact with the center of the bottom ofthe pan, since there is no motion at the center, and so little motion of the area close to the center that the centrifugal force would not act ad- Yantageously and quickly upon the material to be treated.

In the form of construction shown in Figs. l to 3 inclusive, the material to be treated is first fed through the conduit 49 into contact with the distributer which discharges it upon the bottom of the pan at some distance from its mathematical center. The pan is put in motion at the desired speed, through the instrumentality of suitable mechanism as that illustrated `in the drawing. As soon as the material strikes the bottom of the pan or leaves the distrib uter, it immediately commences to travel outwardly under the action of centrifugal force and the metallic valuesy which are heaviest, are brought into direct contact with the lower surface of the riftles adjacent the fall 7 of the pan and are held in such close contact therewith as to prevent their escape. The mineral values of varying specific gravities are caught and classied by the ril-lies while the lighter material is carried 11pwardly and first discharged at the upper eattremity of the wall 7. lf more than one wall is employed thisimaterial will then slide downwardly in contact with the stationary partition 24, and come into contact with the outer portion of the bottom of the pan, where it'will be again acted on by vcentrifugal force and brought into contact with the riiiles of the pan member 8, Where the opera tion heretofore described will be repeated. It is assumed that the material which finally escapes at the upper edge of the pan member 8, will be impoverished of its metallic values. It then enters the launder 26 and is discharged from the machine through the spout 33.

ln the form of construction shown in lig.l S, the wall member 7 ofthe bottom 6 of the pan is equipped with a spirally arranged riile 50 which commences near the bottom of the pan and terminates near the upper eX- tremity thereof. The upper portion of the wall of the pan is provided with an opening 5,1 covered by a housing 52, the extremity 53 of the housing being 'closed just beyond what may be termed the. forward extremity of the opening 51, since when the mineral values which have followed the spirally arranged ritlie reach the discharge opening 51, they will be traveling in the direction'indicated by the arrow a in Fig. S. The metallic' the machine through a spout 55. ln this case the gangue passesupwardly over the rifflea and over the upper edge ofthe pan into a launder compartment. 56 and finally escapes through a spout 57.

ln other respects the form ofconstruction shown in Fig. 8 is substantially the same as shown in the other views. lt is also evident that there-may be a number of rillled wall members in this forni of construction the same as in the other form, tholigh only a ysingle-'such` member is shown in Fig. 8 of the drawing.

As illustrated in Fig. 3, each Iwall member of any pan may be composed of a num- `ber of distinct sections, which are retained in place by overlapping clips 58. These sections are locked in place by .a hoop or metal band 59 which' is exteriorly secured to the upper part of the pan and clamped in place by means of a bolt 60 passing through opposing lugs with which the adjacent extremities of the hoop are equipped. The )an sections should be provided with a numer of stop lugs (il to prevent the hoop from sliding downwardly on the pan. rlFhe sectional form of the pan is believed preferable for I'convenience of transliortation. As shown in the drawing, the partitionQe may also be composed of sections, a single section of this partition being illustrated in Fig. 7.-

Having thus described our invention, what l. A'centrifugal separator comprising a pan having its walls flared outwardly from the bottom of the plan, means for feeding material to the pan, a spiral riftle extending around the inner face of said flared walls, an opening through the wall of the pan immediately below and adjacent the end of the uppermost portion of theriflie, a covering o-ver said opening open at one end and closed at the other to prevent concentrates from'. passing 'beyond the opening, a launder to receive discharge from said opening, and

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a launder to receive discharge from the upper edge of the pan.

2. A centrifugal separator comprising a' pan mounted to rotate and having a wall flared outwardly from its bottom, a launder arranged eXteriorly of the said pan, a stationary distributing device suspended from l said launder and voccupying a central posi-` tion within` the pan, and means for feeding the material to be treated into contact with the said device.

pan mounted to rotate, means for actuating the pan, the wall of the' pan being down war'dly inclined from its outer edge to the bottom and equipped with riflles arranged to 3f A centrifugal separator comprising a.`

intersect the linesl of centrifugal force, n In testimony whereof we nix our iAgnalnunde arranged exteriorly ot the said pan, tures 1n presence of two witnesses.

1 1- C BLAKE H. Menu/nix.

a Central position Within the pan, and means for feeding the material to be treated into vitnessesz Contact with the upper extremity of said GRACE HUSTON, device. Y A. EBERTy OBRIEN.- 

